The morning newsletter of the Ohio Capital Journal
Reporting for the People
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By David DeWitt | Editor in Chief
Good morning Ohio!
Diesel fuel is used to carry the vast majority of consumer goods to and around the United States. It also features heavily in farming. One Ohio data analyst who used to work in the energy industry says it could go up to $10 a gallon.
A sign at a truck stop along Interstate 70 in eastern Indiana. (Photo by Marty Schladen/Ohio Capital Journal)
By Marty Schladen
Nearly all the food and consumer goods that Ohioans buy traveled most of the way to their house on the power of diesel or a related fuel.
By Nick Evans
Last month, the Ohio Election Integrity Unit under the Ohio Secretary of State’s Office issued a finding of “no violation” for Vivek Ramaswamy’s campaign credit card reporting. Ohio state Sen. Kent Smith filed the complaint and is weighing an appeal.
By Patrick O’Donnell, The 74
Ohio students’ reading scores rose slightly last school year, the first the science of reading was mandated, but it’s too soon to say whether the phonics-based lessons are making a difference.
COMMENTARY
An electricity meter. (Photo by Dave Cummings/States Newsroom)
By Rob Moore
When the power goes out, Ohioans lose more than electricity. They can’t make it to work, lose their groceries, lose air conditioning, or have essential medicine go bad. A new bill would require utilities to provide electric bill credits to customers after long outages.
The big challenges and policy issues that cross state lines.
STATELINE
By Kevin Hardy
Household water bills across the United States are increasing faster than inflation and income, according to a new analysis.
By Kevin Hardy
As the political prospects for Republicans worsen ahead of November’s midterm elections, the GOP is increasingly playing defense over its yearslong grip on state governments, as Democrats could win a majority of governorships for the first time since 2010.
THE RUNDOWN
News from other states
By Jerry Cornfield
The U.S. Supreme Court has set the stage for another redrawing of Washington state’s maps. This case dates back four years when a group of Latino voters contested the lines adopted by the state’s redistricting commission and adopted by its legislature.
NATIONAL NEWS
By Jennifer Shutt
Democrats are more motivated to vote in November’s elections than Republicans, potentially giving the party an advantage to flip at least one chamber of Congress, according to a poll released Tuesday by the nonpartisan health organization KFF.
WEDNESDAY WISDOM
“That men do not learn very much from the lessons of history is the most important of all the lessons that history has to teach.”
-Aldous Huxley
CATCHING OUR EYE
Citizens detained by Trump. ProPublica reports, “506 U.S. Citizens Detained.”
The Trump administration says none of this is happening.
“DHS is NOT arresting U.S. citizens by mistake.” “There are no ‘indiscriminate’ stops.” Allegations of “racial profiling are disgusting, reckless and categorically FALSE.” “The pattern is NOT of law enforcement using force.” “ICE does not zip tie or restrain children.”
But that is precisely what is happening, and at a far larger scale than previously reported. We know because we have once again done what the government hasn’t:
We have tallied and cataloged every case we can find of an immigration agent holding a citizen during the current administration. More than 500 cases. That includes:
• More than a hundred Americans held after agents questioned their citizenship. Nearly all were people of color.• At least 70 American children and teens detained, some of whom were handcuffed.
• Of the more than 300 Americans we tracked as detained for allegedly assaulting or obstructing agents, we found fewer than half were actually charged in federal court, and many of those cases were dropped or dismissed.
• At least 63 Americans detained while recording.
• 36 Americans held for at least a day without being able to contact a lawyer or their family.
• Roughly a dozen citizens deported, mostly children.
The ugliest. The New York Times reports, “This High-Profile Campaign May Be the Ugliest in the Country.”
The candidates for Ohio governor have significant policy differences, but the campaign ads have been strikingly personal, with exaggerated portrayals of one candidate as a con artist and the other as a drunk.Infant mortality rate. The Marietta Times Editorial Board writes, “Ohio infant mortality rate deserves full attention.”
Ohioans know our state has its challenges, but generally speaking we think of ourselves as better off than those in some other parts of the country -- or world. For our youngest and most vulnerable residents, that is not always the case. Given the number of politicians who want us to believe the lives of babies are of the utmost important to them, it is astounding that the infant mortality rate here is STILL considerably above the national average.
Efforts to address the problem have made some progress. We are down to 6.6 deaths per 1,000 live births in Ohio, compared with the national average of 5.36, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.JD Vance defends Trump’s taxpayer-funded ads praising himself. The Hill reports, “Vance argues pro-Trump campaign ads ‘are not partisan.’”
Vice President Vance said the new pro-President Trump television advertisements are “not partisan” amid criticism from both sides of the aisle.
The ads, which cost $20 million of taxpayer money, feature Trump’s voice calling for the defeat of socialism and communism while touting the “largest tax cuts in history” and “reigniting American manufacturing.”
The Trump administration has claimed the ads are public service announcements, not campaign ads.
THE POD
THAT'S ALL FOR NOW, FOLKS.
Mahalo!
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